An ultrasonic diagnostic imaging apparatus (echo) is a diagnostic apparatus that irradiate an examinee with ultrasound, receives ultrasound reflected inside the examinee using a probe and obtains image information from received data. Even when irradiated onto the human body, ultrasound is safe without any particular side effects, and is therefore widely used for diagnostics of various diseases on the medical front lines.
The ultrasound medical system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-499 discloses a medical system that combines a radiation system for radiological treatment with an ultrasonic diagnostic imaging apparatus. The ultrasonic diagnostic imaging apparatus provides positional information using the position of the radiation apparatus as the origin when providing the position of a tumor to be cured.
The ultrasound diagnostic apparatus is a simple diagnostic apparatus from the aspect that the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus can acquire image information by only pressing an ultrasonic probe on the human body. A doctor who operates the ultrasound diagnostic apparatus acquires an image by pressing the ultrasonic probe on a patient's body and moving the probe as appropriate. However, since there are many organs in the human body, obtaining image information on an organ to be diagnosed appropriately requires a certain degree of skill in moving the ultrasonic probe.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H01-025576 describes a “scanner of ultrasonic probe.” The position, posture and pressure at an end of an ultrasonic probe are measured and the ultrasonic probe is moved and controlled in such a way that the position, posture and pressure are kept constant.
The method of complementing the skill of the user regarding a scan technique, which is an operation technique, through such control is disclosed.
The above described method allows the state of the probe with respect to the surface of the human body to be kept adequately. However, keeping the ultrasonic probe in an appropriate state with respect to a region to be inspected in the examinee still requires the operator to have the corresponding skill and knowledge.